I've been deveoping an android app (using ChatGPT - I have no real android development knowledge!) which animates a dog's mouth through the camera feed. I had the app working okay but with some latency between the camera feed and the overlay (using CameraX and a PreviewView), so I tried to update it to an offscreen rendering approach, using an EGL context and MediaCodec surface to render the camera feed plus overlays into a single composited output.
However, the I have not implemented this correclty and the camera feed is just showing a black screen.
Here's ChatGPT's summary of what we had originally (working) and what we changed it to. Both of these approaches are saved on different github branches which you will have access to. You can see the previously working version on the master branch, and the newly updated (not working) version on a test branch.
What We Had Originally - An Android app (Kotlin) using CameraX and a PreviewView to display the live camera feed. - A BoundingBoxOverlay custom View drawn on top for YOLO pose detection (dog’s mouth, eyes, etc.). - We wanted to animate the dog’s mouth in sync with audio but were limited by the traditional overlay.
What We Changed It To Offscreen Rendering Approach: - Created an EGL context and MediaCodec surface (via OffscreenRenderer.kt) to render the camera feed plus overlays into a single composited output. - The camera feed is now provided by a SurfaceTexture created from an external OES texture (rather than using PreviewView). - CameraX is configured to output frames to that SurfaceTexture. - A custom pipeline composites the camera and any overlays (animated mouth, etc.) in OpenGL, then encodes to a video file with MediaCodec.
What We’re Trying to Achieve A Snapchat-like pipeline: - Grab the camera feed directly via a SurfaceTexture (external OES texture). - Apply real-time overlays/filters (like mouth animation, hats, glasses) in OpenGL. - Composite everything offscreen and encode it into a video file (for recording). - Avoid the performance constraints of standard Android Views by relying on OpenGL compositing (similar to Snapchat filters).
Despite these changes, the feed currently displays a black screen. We suspect an issue with the GL pipeline, resolution mismatch, or camera frames not drawing as intended.
Goal: Fix the offscreen renderer so that camera frames plus overlays appear in real time, and video recording also works as expected.
Bilingual Consultancy Website + Resource Library Category: Amazon Web Services, Backend Development, CI / CD, Cloud Security, CMS, Dynamics, Frontend Development, SEO Writing, System Administration, Web Security Budget: $8 - $15 USD
09-Feb-2026 11:00 GMT
European Investor Database Research Category: Data Analysis, Data Collection, Data Entry, Database Management, Excel, Lead Generation, Research, Web Search Budget: €30 - €250 EUR
B2B Social Media Design and Video Editing Category: Adobe Creative Suite, B2B Marketing, Content Creation, Graphic Design, Social Media Marketing, Video Editing, Video Production, Video Services Budget: ₹600 - ₹1500 INR
09-Feb-2026 10:59 GMT
Indian Accent Male Voiceover Artist Category: Audio Production, Audio Services, Customer Service, Hindi Translator, Voice Acting, Voice Assistance Devices, Voice Over, Voice Talent Budget: ₹400 - ₹750 INR
09-Feb-2026 10:58 GMT
Metal Rescue Tower Review and Stamp Category: AutoCAD, Building Engineering, CAD / CAM, Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering, Engineering, Project Management, Safety Consulting Budget: $250 - $750 USD
09-Feb-2026 10:58 GMT
Databricks Architect for Data Engineering Category: Architecture, Big Data, Cloud Computing, Data Analytics, Data Architecture, Data Integration, Data Management, Data Processing Budget: ₹750 - ₹1250 INR
09-Feb-2026 10:57 GMT
ICE Raids: fear as a feature not a bug Community Impact Essay Category: Article Writing, Content Writing, Essay Writing, Ghostwriting, Immigration Law, Journalism, Non Fiction Writing, Public Relations, Research Writing, Technical Writing Budget: $250 - $750 USD
Public Consultation Report Category: Consulting, Data Analysis, Data Collection, Grant Writing, Public Relations, Qualitative Research, Report Writing, Research Budget: £1500 - £3000 GBP
